


Heart and Soul

by cleopatras



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, First Meetings, Fluff, Karl is a pianist, M/M, Meet-Cute, Musicians, Quackity is mentioned for like two seconds, Sapnap plays bass, althought the band isn't the main focus, but it's really just a short meet-cute, no beta we die like men, that's literally it - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleopatras/pseuds/cleopatras
Summary: Normally, when Karl came down in the middle of the night to his rehearsal space, he was the only one there. It wasn’t that his school had an endless supply of soundproofed music rooms, he just only liked to practice at odd hours of the night when he couldn’t sleep. Something about sitting in darkened silence and running his tender fingers over ivory keys eased his mind. Considering he was rarely in this room before midnight, seeing other students were a rarity. Only one of the studio spaces had a piano since this university really was not known for its music majors, but Karl didn’t mind.However, one winter night at around two in the morning, he comes in just as another student is leaving, packing away what looks like a guitar (it might not be, Karl always mixes up his string instruments). He’s never seen this student in class, so surely he isn’t another music major, but he certainly is interesting. He’s on the shorter side, probably on par with Karl, with dusty blond hair and soft stubble on his round chin. He’s cute, but more importantly, he was in Karl’s studio.Karl practices piano in the dead of night and until now, he's never seen another person there.
Relationships: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 8
Kudos: 271
Collections: stuff i've read





	Heart and Soul

Normally, when Karl came down in the middle of the night to his rehearsal space, he was the only one there. It wasn’t that his school had an endless supply of soundproofed music rooms, he just only liked to practice at odd hours of the night when he couldn’t sleep. Something about sitting in darkened silence and running his tender fingers over ivory keys eased his mind. Considering he was rarely in this room before midnight, seeing other students were a rarity. Only one of the studio spaces had a piano since this university really was not known for its music majors, but Karl didn’t mind. 

However, one winter night at around two in the morning, he comes in just as another student is leaving, packing away what looks like a guitar (it might not be, Karl always mixes up his string instruments). He’s never seen this student in class, so surely he isn’t another music major, but he certainly is interesting. He’s on the shorter side, probably on par with Karl, with dusty blond hair and soft stubble on his round chin. He’s cute, but more importantly, he was in Karl’s studio.

“What are you doing here?” he asks before he can stop himself, feeling bad for sounding so rude, but he was sleep-deprived and _there was someone else in his space._ “Sorry, that was rude, but uh, what are you doing here?”

The boy looks up at him with wide eyes as he clearly didn’t expect to see another human being at this hour. Clearly, he wasn’t dressed for company considering he was wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants, but Karl never dressed up for his late-night practices either. 

“Uh, sorry, I-I didn’t think anyone else would be here, I’m heading out right now,” the boy looked like a deer caught in headlights as he stood up having finished packing away. 

“It’s fine, just this is normally…” he doesn’t want to say the word _mine,_ but that’s how it feels. This is his place, it always has been since he was a freshman. Instead, he huffs and motions to the piano, “it’s the only one with a piano.” 

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know,” the boy sighs, “Uh, I’ll get out of your hair, then. I’ll try and pick a different studio next time I’m up this late. I’m Sapnap, by the way.”

The boy, Sapnap seems nice enough, confusing name aside. The fact that he actually seems sorry to step on Karl’s imaginary claim to a public place is kind of sweet; Karl can’t even find it in himself to be upset that his nighttime peace was interrupted. Sapnap slides past him through the doorway and Karl almost lets him go without saying anything.

“Karl,” he speaks up, causing the boy to whip his head around at the sound, “Uh, my name’s Karl.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Sapnap smiles before venturing out of the music building. Karl simply sighs, taking a deep breath before taking his place on the piano bench. 

Despite their attempts to avoid each other, Karl sees Sapnap again. It’s probably Karl’s fault, he’s there earlier than normal, but this time he actually has an assignment to complete instead of just practicing so he wants to be at least kind of coherent when he’s composing. So, this is partially his fault. However, this time he actually gets to hear Sapnap play. His inference was incorrect before, judging by the sounds of the instrument, it’s clear that Sapnap is a bass player. He’s damn good at it, too. Karl stands in the doorway, not bothering to interrupt because the boy has his eyes closed as his fingers fly across the strings. The song sounds familiar, so it must be a cover, but he can’t place the title.

The moment is over when Sapnap opens his eyes and realizes he’s being watched. His eyes meet Karl’s and instantly he freezes, clearing his throat awkwardly. His cheeks turn pink at the notion of being watched and Karl holds back a smile.

“Uh, sorry, uh, last time you were here later so I thought I was in the clear,” Sapnap coughs, already going to unplug his instrument, but Karl stops him.

“It’s fine! You don’t have to stop, it’s my fault, I’m never here this early. That was really good, though, what song was that?” Karl says with a laugh, trying to make sure the boy knows he’s not irritated with him being here. He pulls the tab of the Monster can he’s holding, taking a small sip as he waits for Sapnap to respond. When he actually has work to do, caffeine is his best friend. 

Sapnap nods to the can, “The white ones are the best.”

“They are. Song?”

“Uh, it’s kind of a girly song, uh, it was _Francis Forever,_ by Mitski? I don’t know if you’ve heard of her. Uh, I come here to play the songs that my bandmates would probably make fun of me for knowing.” _Bandmates._ Interesting. “We mainly play, like, rock stuff, not… sad indie music.”

Karl nods, “I think I’ve heard that song before, uh, you’re in a band?” 

“Yeah, uh, we’re kind of underground. We mainly just play cover songs at open mic nights, but we’re working on an EP right now,” Sapnap explained, scratching the back of his neck before going to fiddle with the bass. “Uh, you might know one of my bandmates? Alex, but some people know him as Quackity. He’s another music major.”

“How’d you know I was a music major?” he asks with a small, teasing smile as he goes and sits on the piano bench backward so he can still face Sapnap. “And yeah, I know Alex, we’re pretty good friends.”

Sapnap seemed to be embarrassed at knowing something he shouldn’t, stumbling over his words to say, “Uh, it was kind of a guess, I just asked Q if he knew any piano players. Sorry, that was probably weird, I just thought…”

“Thought what?” Karl had a feeling he knew what Sapnap was going to say, but he would hate to get too ahead of himself. After all, this is fairly uncharted territory for him. He doesn’t interact with people often, much less random people that find themselves in his music studio that’s not actually his. 

“I thought you were cute,” Sapnap seems to give up on holding out, sighing as he pulls the strap over his shoulder and places his bass on its stand, “Sorry.”

“I thought you were cute, too,” Karl admits, surprising even himself, “Uh, you don’t have to clear out if you don’t want to, I’ve got all night to work on this assignment. I can come back later or… just hang out while you finish up, it’s cool.”

Sapnap immediately shakes his head, “No, no, dude, if you’ve got like homework to do and shit you can work on it, I’ll get out of here, I was just messing around. I know this is kinda like your place.”

Now, he might just be making assumptions, but part of him is curious, “So, you knew this was the only studio I could use, but you still came back to use it even though other studios are open at this hour?”

He immediately looks like he was caught in a lie or something along those lines, so he just laughs, running a hand through his hair, “It sounds dumb when you say it like that, but I… forgot to ask for your number last time so I was kind of hoping I would see you again.”

Karl’s cheeks warm at this as he turns around and opens the piano. He doesn’t say anything, but instead, he turns his head to look at Sapnap, patting the spot on the bench next to him. The boy hesitates for a moment before taking the seat. The bench is small, so they’re pressed up against each other, but it’s not uncomfortable. He turns and pulls the sheet music out of his bag, half unfinished.

“Do you know how to play at all?” Karl asks, turning to face him to see Sapnap shake his head.

“Not even a little bit,” he says with a nervous smile. 

“Not even Heart and Soul?” he asks once more and the boy shakes his head once again. “Okay, it’s easy, it goes like this.”

He begins to play the easy tune, keeping note of how Sapnap’s eyes follow his fingers. Once he plays that part, he motions to Sapnap, “Here, put your fingers there,” he motions to the correct key, “Play what I just did.”

He hits the right keys, but the timing is off. Karl chuckles softly, placing a gentle hand over his to stop him before pressing down the keys once more. Warmth seeps through his palm at the contact. He wonders if Sapnap can feel it, too. 

“Time it more like this.” Sapnap offers a small smile at the instruction before trying again, more in tune this time. “Good, okay, keep doing that.” 

“I suck,” Sapnap chuckles, but Karl just shakes his head as he starts to play the other part. He only plays a little bit -- the part that everyone knows -- before stopping. Sapnap stops as well, saying, “Enough about me, I wanna hear you play, like, actually.”

Karl laughs softly at this, “I’m no good in front of people. Why do you think I’m always practicing at two in the morning?”

“Please?” Sapnap asks, his brow furrowed as he looks over at him. “You need to do your homework anyway and I just decided I’m not leaving.”

He rolls his eyes, but obliges as he looks to his unfinished sheet music. “Don’t laugh.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Karl begins to play what he has so far, his fingers flying across the keys since he’s played these lines so many times trying to get them just right. It’s not the best thing he’s ever composed, but he supposes it’ll get him a B at the very least and that’s good enough for him. He reaches the part where there is nothing on the sheet music and he slows, trying to figure out how to carry it but ultimately giving up and stopping, his hands slouching against his sides.

“That’s all I’ve got,” he sighs, running a hand through his dark hair and taking another sip of his monster. “It’s not the best, but it’ll get the grade. If I can _finish_ it.” 

“Not the best?” Sapnap gawks, “That’s better than anything I could do! You _wrote_ that?”

Karl suddenly feels shy, bashfulness showing all over his face as his cheeks are surely pink at the compliment. “Uh, yeah, I wrote it, I think it’s almost done, but I just can’t get this last part.” 

“That was amazing,” the blond chuckles, nudging him with his shoulder, “You’re amazing.”

“You don’t even know me,” Karl sighs as he places his hands against the keys once more, trying to sound out the way he wants the music to go in his head before slowly replicating what the movements should be. He plays a quiet melody, deciding he doesn’t like it, trying to mentally move notes around in a way that coordinates with what he already has written. 

“I wouldn’t mind _getting_ to know you,” Sapnap interrupts, his voice quiet, “Uh, my band, we’re playing at the cafe’s open mic night this Friday. Do you… do you wanna come?”

Karl stops, his fingers frozen over the keys as he looks over at Sapnap, a small smile forming on his face. “Yeah, yeah, I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! can you tell I know nothing about piano? lmao. 
> 
> anyway, feel free to check me out on twitter! 
> 
> [mctwtt](https://twitter.com/nicowritess)  
> [fic rec acc](https://twitter.com/karlnapficrecs)


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